Offshore Wind Power Could Alter Ocean Currents

Roiling Ocean Waters
A small service vessel steers between offshore windmills in the North Sea offshore from the village of Blavandshuk near Esbjerg, Denmark. Large offshore wind farms can stir up ocean nutrients which, in turn, could lead to an uptick in fish populations, new research suggests. AP Photo/Heribert Proepper

From Discovery:

Nov. 12, 2008 -- Generating wind power at sea may disturb ocean currents and marine ecosystems, according to a new study.

Offshore wind farms are common in Europe; Denmark, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom all have several active installations. Wind power in the United States is currently confined to dry land, but three installations are planned off the coast of New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Delaware, totaling about 1,500 megawatts of generating capacity.

Extracting energy from wind changes regional air currents, which can in turn affect how the nearby ocean circulates, according to Goran Brostrom of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo.

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